To-Do List: R.N.C. Kicks Off; Isaac Still Approaching

To know: The Republican National Convention in Tampa is set to start in earnest, after delays caused by Tropical Storm Isaac, which is now on its way to becoming a hurricane … The U.S. military said it will discipline Marines after two separate incidents, one involving burned copies of the Koran, and the other a video of Marines urinating on corpses … Samsung Electronics, in South Korea, vowed to keep its products on U.S. shelves after losing a billion-dollar-judgement to Apple in court last week … An Israeli court rejected a lawsuit brought by the parents of an American activist crushed by a bulldozer in 2003, claiming that the military was not at fault for her death … Steven Spielberg denied rumors that he is in talks to produce a movie about the killing of Osama bin Laden.

To read: Wendy Ruderman interviews the mother of Jeffrey T. Johnson, responsible for the shooting at the Empire State Building last week, in the New York Times:

“I don’t blame police in New York for shooting my son because he killed somebody, but for me, he hasn’t changed. He’s still the kindhearted, caring person who loved all kinds of animals and I’m sure he loved us,” she said through sobs. “You know a mother always tries to look for the best in you.”

She learned of her son’s involvement the same way that most had; on Friday morning, she and her husband were watching the news on television. The couple heard the name “Jeffrey Johnson” and caught the words “Hazan Imports,” the business on West 33rd Street where their 58-year-old son had designed women’s T-shirts. Right away, they knew, she said.

“I know there are a lot of Jeffrey Johnsons in the world and a lot of Jeffrey Johnsons in New York City, but when they said the company he used to work for,” she said, “I just went to pieces.”

Michael Finkel writes for Men’s Journal about his travails at a silent-meditation retreat:

Demand for Vipassana courses, despite the 10-day commitment, is often overwhelming. Waiting lists are common. Classes are now taught in more than 70 countries, including the United States, but I wanted to travel to India - to the motherland of the Buddha, to the world’s preeminent Vipassana center, to a place so far from home that I’d be deterred from quitting. Dhamma Giri, the center I wished to attend, can house more than 500 students, but getting in is like applying for college. I even had to write a brief essay, in which I pleaded that I was desperate to “capture a greater degree of calmness in myself.” A few weeks later, via email, I learned I’d been accepted for a spot in the February 2012 class. So I left my wife and kids and flew to Mumbai.

Now, folded atop my royal-blue cushion in the crowded room in the small pagoda, facing the teachers, I wait. I don’t quite know what to do. It’s evening; there are no windows in the meditation room, but there’s ambient light, gradually waning. Spiderwebs are hammocked about the ceiling. I glance at the teachers; they’re motionless, eyes closed. I look at my neighbors. Eyes shut. I close my own. I listen to the birdcalls, intense beyond the pagoda’s walls. There’s the scent of a burning bug coil. Someone burps.

Finally, I hear a noise in the front of the room, a slight rustle. I can’t help but peek. One of the teachers, the balding one, presses a button on a portable CD player. A gravelly voice flows through several wall-mounted speakers. First in Hindi, then English. It’s the voice of S.N. Goenka, who is credited with Vipassana’s current resurgence. Vipassana had faded from use in India a few centuries after the Buddha’s death. But it thrived in Burma, where Goenka stumbled upon the technique in the 1950s. Though a successful businessman, he suffered from debilitating migraines that no mainstream doctor could alleviate. Vipassana not only ended his headaches, it infused him with a deep sense of bliss. His motto—“Be Happy!”—is stenciled on dozens of signs across the Dhamma Giri campus.

To watch: Activists with the women’s rights group Code Pink donned vagina costumes to protest at the R.N.C. in Tampa:

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